


Indigo Tides

by catmaw



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humanstuck, Mermaids, Mermaidstuck, Multi, fantasystuck, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-20 16:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3657870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catmaw/pseuds/catmaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Relationships/tags will be added once they show up in the story!)<br/>They told you to stay away from them, that they were dangerous. They told you if you saw one on the beach, the plan was to just leave it and let it die there.<br/>You didn’t listen to them. You didn’t stay away from him; you didn’t let him die on the beach. You wouldn’t have forgiven yourself if you listened to them, if you had kept him out of your life.<br/>Your name is Equius Zahhak, and you’re in love with a mermaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
“Come on, Equius, don’t you wanna see a mermaid?”  
Your name is Equius Zahhak, you’re 8 years old, and you had just gotten out of bed when your brother started calling you from down on the pier. Your favorite things are horses, the color blue, and whatever neat things your dad builds in his office. You live next to the ocean, and often you, your brother and your dad will go fishing on his small but nice fishing boat.  
He always tells you about mermaids, beautiful and elusive half-person half-fish creatures that live deep in the water, and you desperately want to see one for yourself. He says he saw one a long time ago, so you know they must be real! Your brother, Horuss, who is 14 years old, doesn’t believe they exist, and he always teases you saying he saw one. You always fall for it.  
Just like today.  
“Hurry up, you’re gonna miss it!”  
His voice is always wobbly and breaking, he says it’s because of some puberty thing boys around his age go through. More like pooberty, because it’s pooey, like poo.  
You don’t even bother to get out of your pajamas, even though you know Dad will get mad at you if you go outside without wearing normal clothes. Normal clothes are dumb, you’d rather be wearing you’re My Little Pony pajamas, complete with Rarity on the front of the shirt. Rarity is the best pony. Everyone says My Little Pony is for girls, but they’re dumb, it’s for everyone!  
Dummy dumb poo poo dumb people with their pooberty and dumb girls-only rule. Bleh.  
You sneakily sneak out of your room and down the stairs, those nasty big old stairs you always nearly trip on at the bottom. You hate those stairs. Those stairs are dumb. You always tell Dad to fix them but he never does. That’s dumb.  
Thankfully Dad is in his office right now, so you can sneakily sneak away past him and out the back door to the pier. When you open the door, the salty sea air hits you hard, like a pooey old salty dumb dump truck that doesn’t actually smell like poo. Poo.  
Horuss is standing out on the dock, wearing his horse costume and looking at the ocean. He always wears that horse costume that’s way too big for him and his dummy dumb goggles that are dumb. You think he sleeps in them, and he probably does. He’s a big dumb dorkface.  
“Equius! There you are! Quick, look!” he says, pointing out into the ocean and smiling. You hurry over to the end of the pier, almost tripping over a loose board, and look at where he was pointing. Out in the ocean, you can just barely make out a fin sticking out of the water.  
“Sorry, I lied. It’s not a merneighd, but it is a shark!” he says, shrugging.  
“You said there was a mermaid!” you say, groaning at his horribly bad horse pun that’s bad. He always makes lame horse puns that are lame. Lame and bad.  
“C’mon, you know merneighds don’t exist.” Horuss says.  
“Yes they do! I’m gonna find one!” you reply.  
“They do not.”  
“Do so!”  
“Neigh.”  
“Yay.”  
You two would have kept that up for a while if it hadn’t been for a loud splashing sound from the ocean. You look over at where it came from, and you can see something falling into the water, then jump out again frantically.  
“What is that?” you say, confused.  
“I dunno, but it’s coming closer..!” Horuss replies.  
He was right; whatever is splashing so violently is getting closer to the shore. And whatever it is, it’s surprisingly… human looking. You watch in awe as the creature ungracefully makes its way closer and onto the shore, wiggling about like it just stepped in horse poo.  
“Wait… is that…?” Horuss runs down the pier and over to where the creature flopped ashore. “Oh my galloping galloways!” You run down the pier after him, and turn your attention to the aquatic creature that just beached itself.  
Laying on the beach, flailing wildly and kicking up sand, was a mermaid. A mermaid with messy black hair, a long, beautiful purple tail with some darker purple spots, and a not so beautiful piece of plastic wrapped around his neck. The kind they put soda bottles in at the store. And the mermaid appeared to be choking on it, or just be choking on the fact that it wasn’t in the water anymore.  
Horuss stares at the mermaid for a moment, not wanting to believe his eyes, before noticing the six pack rings around the mermaid’s neck and quickly springing into action. You watch him run back into the house, and now you’re left in your My Little Pony pajamas next to an aggravated wild animal that’s currently dying because of bad plastic design. Poo.  
The mermaid keeps panicking, but it’s quickly tiring out, and you try your best to calm it down. This doesn’t work, and the mermaid gets even more afraid with you standing closer to it. You gather up a handful of sea water and throw it on the mermaid, and you can hear it desperately gasping for any oxygen around the plastic garbage.  
Horuss quickly returns with a pair of scissors, and makes quick work of cutting the six pack rings off of the mermaid’s neck. He than tries to pick up the mermaid, whom is only slightly smaller then you, but the creature is too slimy to hold and wriggles its way out of Horuss’ grasp. It flops about on the sand for a moment before managing to get back into the ocean, quickly disappearing into the waves.  
You both just stand there in awe, staring at where it (un)majestically disappeared.  
“Well… erm…” Horuss is left speechless.  
You, however, are far from speechless.  
“A mermaid! It was a mermaid! A real live mermaid with a tail and everything! See, I told you they existed! I told you, Hor! I told you but you didn’t believe me! Now you gotta believe me!” you say excitedly, hopping up and down.  
“A… mermaid…” Horuss murmurs to himself, barely audible.  
“Did you see it Hor? It was jumping around and having a fit! It was flippin’ sand everywhere! I saw it! I saw the mermaid!”  
“Kinda like you when someone takes your Rarity figure.” Horuss says, snapping out of his trance and turning to face you.  
“Hey!” is your only response.  
The fun has to be cut short too soon when Dad bellows for lunch being ready. In the midst of being right next to a mermaid, you completely forgot you were hungry! You bounce up the small steps and back into the house, where Dad is standing there with two freshly-made lettuce sandwiches. Your favorite! Delicious sandwiches made with lettuce and cabbage and tomatoes and a big slice of pineapple. It’s like a salad, but in a bun instead of a bowl!  
You run over and plop down in the chair, and Dad hands you the smaller sandwich and Horuss the big sandwich after he sits down. Horuss always gets the big sandwich. You want the big sandwich, but Dad always tells you that because Horuss is bigger, he gets the bigger sandwich. It’s not fair! At least he gives you the bigger sandwich on your birthday…  
“Hey, you alright there Horuss? You’re looking kinda off.” Dad says, he’s always so loud but grumbly at the same time and it confuses you how he manages to be both.  
Before Horuss can speak, however, you butt in and answer for him. “It was a mermaid, Dad! We saw one! It flopped up onto the beach ‘cuz it had a six pack rings around its neck! Horuss cut the rings off, and it swam away!”  
“Yeah, yeah, what Equius said.”  
Dad sighs. “Come on now, you know all of that hullabaloo about mermaids ain’t real, right?”  
“That’s what I said, but I swear to you, there was a mermaid on the beach.” Horuss says.  
“After all this time you went on about how mermaids ain’t gonna exist, now you’re turnin’ around and tellin’ me they do?” Dad says.  
“Yeah, that’s how you know we saw one, if grumpy old Hor said they’re real!” you pitch in.  
“Alright, alright, maybe there was a mermaid. Maybe there was, maybe there wasn’t, who really gives any at this point? If it did exist, it swam away, and we’d probably never see it again. Just get to eatin’ your sandwiches already, before I do.” Dad returns to making his own lunch.  
You pout, and start eating your lunch. You don’t know why he doesn’t believe you, it was right there! You touched it, Horuss even picked it up! Your hands are still slimy from touching it! He’s just being dumb and grumbly and pooey like a big dumb grumbly lame poo man. Bluh.  
You’ll prove to him it exists. You’ll show him.


	2. Chapter 2

Holy shit, that was an experience if you ever experienced one.  
Your name is Gamzee Makara, and you are a mermaid. Specifically, the son of the king of New Atlantis, which isn’t anywhere near the actual Atlantis, where the queen lives. Everyone says you couldn’t possibly be the king’s son, what with how huge he is and how… small you are. You may only be 8 years old, but even mermaids your age are bigger then you. You have yet to find someone that’s your size that isn’t 5 years old. Being a runt sucks.  
Anyway, the amount of your blubber isn’t the point. The point is that you had just gotten way too up close and personal with humans while flopping around on a beach, choking to death on some odd plastic garbage thing. Clearly, it was one of your finer moments. All up and flopping around in the sand next to a human in weird clothes with a white horse on them. At least you think it was a horse. Maybe? You’ve never actually seen a horse before, only seahorses. You don’t think they’re the same thing.  
It all seemed to happen in a blur; you get some weird plastic rings caught around your neck and they hurt like hell, digging into your sensitive gills like a frantic crab. You tried to get them off and somehow ended up beached with two very drippy humans standing over you, one with a weapon. It was a true blue miracle that you managed to get away, even when the bigger one with the goggles picked you up.  
You absolutely cannot tell Dad about this. His relationship with the humans is… iffy at best, and if he learns about this, he’d go into a rage the size of a humpback whale. And that’s a big rage. Much bigger than a dolphin-sized rage. Much bigger than a you-sized rage. Most things are bigger then you, really.  
Anyway, you really shouldn’t be floating here in the middle of nowhere; the open sea is dangerous, after all! You start to swim back to town, looking at the seafloor for any cool shiny things you can find. There are always cool shiny things, and you love to pick them up and collect them. Dad and Kurloz say it’s silly, but you think it’s fun. They’re silly. Silly weird mermaids that don’t like shiny things.  
Speaking of Kurloz, he’s even weirder then Dad. He almost never talks, and when he does, it’s either mumbling or that weird chanting he does in his room sometimes. He never lets anyone into his room when he does the chanting thing, or really at all, and you wonder what he’s doing in there. Probably singing some weird song that’s weird and has chanting in it for some odd reason. Or that screaming thing he did once. Except silently this time.  
Whoops, there you go, daydreaming again. You’ve always had a problem with that, one thought takes flight and it expands into a bunch of other thoughts until you lose track of what you were actually doing. What were you doing?  
Oh right, looking for shiny things. Yeesh, it’s kind of annoying being so absent minded and forgetful all the time. But on the other hand, it does spice up your rather boring life. Anyway, you return to looking for shiny objects in the sand. Let’s see… rock… sand… nothing… shark… rock… wait. Shark. Oh shit.  
There’s no doubt about it, that is a shark, and it’s big, hungry, and staring right at you. You freeze, and pray to Neptune that it doesn’t attack you, as you’re not entirely sure if you’d be fast enough to escape it. Neptune doesn’t seem to like you today, as the shark lunges towards you, ready to attack.  
Immediately you dash off in the opposite direction, swimming as fast as your spotted purple tail can take you. The shark follows close behind, and seems to be getting closer at every moment. You dodge between rocks and seaweed, and a school of anchovies quickly disbands in all directions when you get near it, a few fish accidentally swimming into the shark’s jaw.  
Neptune seems to have forgiven you though, as town is right over there, and you’re entirely sure someone can help. You swim into town, past many confused and scared faces. Silence turns into screaming as the shark follows you, and everyone notices. It’s hard to not notice a large deadly sea predator chasing a small mermaid.  
The shark catches up to you, and bites you by the tail, sinking its razor sharp teeth into you and shaking you back and forth violently. And wow, does it HURT. You let out a shrill scream and flail wildly in an attempt to escape its grasp. This isn’t a good attempt, considering you’re ripping up your tailfins even more.  
Thankfully, two guards attack the shark, and the shark tries to bite one, forgetting it was using its mouth to hold onto you. You quickly swim away from it and hide in a small hole in the side of a house they made specifically for situations like this. Human technology doesn’t exactly work underwater, so we’re all stuck with spears and hidey-holes.  
However, before the guard mermaids can hold the shark down long enough to kill it, it swats one guard away with its tail and bites another’s arm off. They both start yelling, and the shark swims down the road, looking for someone else to eat, not knowing where you went. Your curiosity gets the best of you, and you swim out of your hiding place.  
Looking down the road, you notice Kurloz, floating there, staring at the surface of the water, something he does quite a lot. You’re not entirely sure why he does that, or what he’s even looking at. You know what the shark is looking at though, him.  
You start yelling at Kurloz, trying to tell him to get into a hiding hole, but he doesn’t notice you, and neither does the shark. You’re not entirely sure if sharks CAN hear. The shark lunges at Kurloz, and bites him hard on the tail, then shakes him around. You scream, and your first instinct is to try and fight the shark off. You grab a nearby stone and lunge at the shark, slapping it with the stone.  
It doesn’t work; the shark simply swats you away with its tail. It wasn’t even cut or injured at all. Boo.  
What IS injured, however, is Kurloz. He hasn’t made a sound the entire time, you’d think he would but he hasn’t. Your next immediate instinct is to get Dad, so you swim off towards the castle as fast as you can go, which is slower than before. Thankfully the castle is right here.  
Unfortunately, it seems the shark decided to chase you instead of finishing off Kurloz. It swims after you into the castle, and you have a harder time dodging it through the corridors and between the pillars and furniture, which the shark just barges through. You also have a harder time because you’re still bleeding and injured from the shark bite earlier.  
You make it to Dad’s room, where he sits on his big throne thing, like he always does, taking a nap. You scream for Dad to wake up, just as the shark catches up to you. The shark tries to bite you again, but misses, kinda. It ends up taking off one of your tailfins, just as Dad wakes up. Dad looks at the shark, and flies into a rage, screaming and cursing at it, and then whacking it hard with his giant club. Dad’s club is powerful, its big and bulky and has a lot of sharp spikes sticking out of it. He found it on a beach and kept it ever since.  
Dad quickly finishes off the shark, the taste of blood—both yours and the sharks—fills the room and stings in your gills.  
“Motherfuckin BULLSHIT ASS SHARK BARGIN IN HERE. Trying to MOTHERFUCKING kill MY GOD DAMN SON. Piece of SHIT, fuck that STUPID ASS FUCKING SHARK SHIT.” There goes Dad, cursing and screaming at the shark, even though it can’t hear him because it’s dead. “Where the MOTHERFUCK is Kurloz!? Shit, that boy better not be fucking around in his STUPID MOTHERFUCKING ROOM AGAIN.”  
“Uh, Dad? Kurloz… was attacked by the motherfucking shark… earlier. He’s all up and… outside.” You say, coughing a bit. You can physically feel the anger emanating from Dad as he barges out of the castle with more force than the shark had. You can also hear him pitching a fit and screaming at an unlucky pedestrian. You star to swim out to where he is.  
“The MOTHERFUCKING RULES state that you DON’T GET IN THE MOTHERFUCKING WAY when I’m PISSED. God damn lousy piece of shit…” Dad says. You get out to where he is—by the way it hurts like HELL to even try to move now—and see Dad floating over an injured mermaid, screaming at them, clearly having just attacked them like he normally does when someone gets in his way. The mermaid quickly swims off, and you turn your focus to Kurloz. You really wish you hadn’t.  
Laying there against the wall rests Kurloz, your brother, his torso and upper tail ripped open by the shark, and various guts and organs floating out of him. The sea near him is thick with the stinging taste of blood, and there is no doubting that he is deader than dead. Well, fuck.  
Well fuck is an understatement to how you feel. A big one. In reality, a good way to describe how you feel is Jesus shitting Christ a shark just KILLED my BROTHER and it’s all my fault for being a LOUSY AIRHEAD and not getting help sooner and now I’m floating here watching his GUTS float up and out of the MASSIVE HOLE in his body and all of this could have been avoided if I didn’t decide to wander around the OPEN OCEAN without paying any attention to what was around me. But well fuck is shorter and easier to say and won’t prompt Dad screaming at you for self-hatred.  
If you weren’t underwater, you’d definitely be crying right now, and also if you had the energy to cry. The panic you felt earlier finally dissipates, and exhaustion washes over you, so much so that you can’t even keep yourself vertical, and end up collapsing onto the gravel. Also, you’re still bleeding, not as bad, but still bleeding.  
Everything is hurting, things are starting to become blurry, and you can hear Dad scream and yell about something, you just can’t make out what it is. You can feel him picking you up, just as your vision dulls and you pass out.  
Whoops.


	3. Chapter 3

“So this is where you saw it, huh?”  
“Yes! Right here! Right on that beach!”

You were standing on the dock, waves crashing against the shore where just yesterday, you saw a mermaid for the first time. Your dad, Darkleer, was standing with you, looking over at the beach, the sand still somewhat ruffled from yesterday.

“Are you sure it was a mermaid? Could have just been a seal lion. We get those a lot, you know. You’ve seen them.” Darkleer says.  
“I’m sure it was a mermaid, Dad! It had to be! It had a person face and hair and people arms!” you reply.  
“Sure it did.”  
“I’m not joking! I really saw one!”  
“Come on, lets get back inside. You shouldn’t be wearing pajamas outside anyway, Equius.”

You shouldn’t be wearing pajamas outside anyway, Equius. Bluh. What’s so wrong about wearing pajamas outside? They’re comfy! Dad wears his comfy pants outside all the time. His stupid dumb comfy pants that he can wear but you can’t. Poo.

Dad goes back inside, and you follow him, unwillingly. You don’t wanna go back inside yet. You wanna stay out here and wait for the mermaid! He’s gonna be back, you just know it! He’s got to be back! If he doesn’t come back then hes dumb. Dumb and lame. Poo-ey dumb lame mermaid.

Horuss is watching horse documentapies again in his horse costume. Docuterafies? Pocuferabes. Whatever that’s called. The thing where people talk about horses. You like them. You like horses. Horses are neat. Your friend Nepeta says cats are better, but she’s wrong! Horses are way better than cats! And way bigger.

Speaking of Nepeta, she and her big sister, Meulin, are coming over today, along with some of Nepeta’s friends. Didn’t Dad say in a few hours? You don’t wanna wait a few hours. You want them to be here now. Nepeta is your best friend, you don’t wanna wait. Poo. Waiting is poo-ey. Just like pooberty. Bleh.

You sit down next to Horuss, deciding to watch his docuperaties. Horuss looks really happy, he always does when he sees something about robots or horses. Or robot horses. He’d burst from happiness if he saw a robot horse. You wanna make one for him when you grow up.

“And so, the majestic stallion gallops over to a herd of females, trying to find a mate,” says the guy on the show.

Horuss has seen this dokumerapee at least 5 times. Probably 10. It’s not even his favorite one. You like this one, but clearly not as much as him. Horuss is jumping up and down in his seat, he always does that when he sees horses. People call him weird, but he’s not weird.

The horses on the TV keep prancing around and galloping places. You like watching horses run, the way their manes flow in the wind and they make a clop clop sound against the ground. You also like riding horses, except when you fall off and hurt your leg. Arthour wasn’t being very co-operative that day.

You can hear popcorn popping from the kitchen, so you get up and go out to get some. Watching the popcorn pop is fun. Lots of things are fun. Except when you have to wait for things. You want Nepeta to be here and watch the horses. Why is she taking so long?

Nevermind. A ding-dong at the door shows that Nepeta is probably here. You hope it’s Nepeta. It better be Nepeta. You’re tired of waiting. Dad gets out the popcorn and puts some in a bowl, while Horuss gets up and answers the door.

“Hello, Meulin! Hello, Nepeta!” Horuss says.

Finally, they’re here! Dad gives you the bowl of popcorn and you run out into the living room again, almost tripping on your way over there. Nepeta is standing at the door, wearing her oversized coat and cat hat, something she always has on. She had her mom stitch a bright blue, furry tail onto the back of her big coat, and furry cat ears and white button eyes onto a blue beanie she found at the store. She calls it her cat hat now.

“Hi!” Nepeta says happily. She’s always happy.

Horuss welcomes Nepeta and Meulin inside, along with two of Nepeta’s friends. You’ve never met Nepeta’s friends. She says they’re nice, you hope they’re nice. You dont want to hang out with mean Nepeta’s friends all day.

Horuss and Meulin go upstairs, leaving you, Nepeta, and her two friends--one’s a boy it seems, and the other’s a girl--alone in the living room. Well, not alone. Dad’s here too. With popcorn.

“You got here pretty early, huh? I just made popcorn, any of you kids want some?” Dad says.

“I’d like some, please.” says one of Nepeta’s friends. You were right, that one was a girl, her voice is all high and squeaky. She goes over to Dad, and Dad gives her a bowl of popcorn. She looks kinda fat, Dad says its not nice to call people that, but she’s definitely not skinny like Nepeta is! You wouldn’t tell her that, though, you’re pretty sure she already knows.

Nepeta and her other friend also get some popcorn, and they all sit down on the couch. You sit down too, right between Nepeta and the other friend. This one is a boy, and he has short hair. Nepeta says he can’t see well, and you shouldn’t make fun of him. Even with glasses, he has a hard time seeing. You wear glasses, but they’re sunglasses, and cracked from dropping them a lot.

“So, what are we watching?” says Nepeta’s friend, his voice is all gravelly, kinda like Dad’s. You wonder why his voice is all weird like that. Only old people get gravelly voices like Dad does.  
“It looks like a horse show!” Nepeta says.  
“Horses are nice…” says Nepeta’s other friend.  
“Horuss was watchin’ it earlier.” you say. “Who are your friends, Nepeta?”  
“Oh, right! I furgot to introduce you!” Nepeta says, she always makes cat puns like that. “She’s Tafuros, and he’s Terezi!”  
“Tafuros?” you ask.  
“Tavros, sorry.” Nepeta responds.  
“And, uh, what’s your name?” Tavros asks you.  
“My name is Equius.” you reply.  
“That’s, that’s a nice name…” Tavros replies, kinda quietly. Her voice is always either squeaky and loud or soft and quiet.  
“Hey, did you guys know I saw a mermaid yesterday?” you say.  
“A mermaid!?” Terezi says.  
“Yeah! A mermaid!” you say.  
“A purrmaid! Equius, you gotta show us!” Nepeta says, looking excited.  
“I’m not sure if the mermaid is there today, but we can look!” you say, getting off the couch.  
“Be careful on the docks, you might fall in. Here, I’ll go with you.” Dad says. The four of you, and Dad, all go through the kitchen and to the back door, then outside.

Outside, the sea air is salty and heavy as usual. You run out onto the docks, and look around for the mermaid.  
“It was right over here where I saw him! He was floppin’ around and jumped up onto the beach, right over there!” you say, pointing to the part of the beach where the mermaid was, the sand still kinda kicked around. Or flipped around. Mermaids don’t have feet.  
“Where is he now, though?” asks Terezi.  
“I don’t know. Somewhere in the ocean, I s’pose.”  
“Maybe he got eaten by a shark!” jokes Terezi, before laughing.  
“Hey! Don’t say things like that! I’m sure he’s fine!” you say, getting a little angry.  
“I’m joking, I’m joking!” Terezi says.  
You sigh and keep looking around for the mermaid. Sadly, it seems he’s nowhere in sight.  
“So, where is he?” Terezi asks.  
“I’m not sure… I don’t think he’s here right now.” you reply.  
“Aww, I wanted to see the purrmaid!” Nepeta says, she looks disappointed.  
“I’m sure he’ll show up later!” you say.  
“I, uh, I wanna see the mermaid…” Tavros says, kinda quietly.  
“Hey, what’s this on the beach?” Terezi says, walking over to the beach and picking something up.  
“What is it, Terezi?” asks Tavros.  
Terezi holds up a pearl, with a small hole in it and a string around it, along with the letters “G.M.” on the back carved into it.  
“That must have been the mermaid’s! He must have lost it when he was flippin’ around in the sand!” you say, getting an idea. You could probably use that to get the mermaid to come back, it’s probably important to him!

You take the pearl necklace from Terezi, and put it up on a pole at the edge of the dock, right on an old, rusty nail. You think that if you stay out here and watch, that maybe the mermaid will come back for it!

“I’m pretty surprised it wasn’t washed back into the ocean yet, that looks pretty light and easy to be snatched up by the waves.” Dad says.  
“But now we can get the mermaid to come back!” you say, excited.  
“He might not come back, there’s probably a bunch of those in mermaid land.” Dad says.  
“I’m sure he’ll come back! He’s got to!” you say. You’re kinda desperate to see that mermaid again.  
“I hope he, uh, comes back.” Tavros says.  
“He’s gonna come back! I know it!” you say.

You look out into the ocean, hoping you’ll see the mermaid jump out of the water. You see something jump out of the water, at least, and you get really excited.  
“Look! Look! Something jumped! It might have been the mermaid!” you say, very excitedly. Tavros, Terezi, and Nepeta all run to the edge of the dock with you.

You keep a close eye on the water, and soon, you see something big, purple, and black swim under the dock. You get super excited, and try to get a better look at it. You aren’t exactly looking where you’re leaning, and end up accidentally slipping and falling into the water.  
“Equius!!!” Nepeta yells.

Shoot, its cold! You immediately shut your eyes, not wanting to get salt water in them, and start trying to swim back up to the surface, which doesn’t work very well. You’ve never been a good swimmer, you always need your flippers and arm floaties. You have neither of them right now.

Time seemed to have slowed down as you desperately try to break the surface of the water, and you can feel the ocean shift around you. You can feel arms wrap around your helpless body, which you assume is the mermaid, along with a smooth, scaly tail smacking against your legs a couple times. You can feel the surface break, and you take a deep breath of air, right after spitting out the saltwater you took in.

“It really is a mermaid! A mermaid!” you can hear Terezi say, and you open your eyes. Everyone’s on the edge of the dock, looking at you and the mermaid.

You look behind you, and find yourself staring right at the mermaid from yesterday, black, messy hair and all. It looks like he’s trying to keep you above the water, his head just barely under the surface, you assume so he can breathe. Mermaids can’t breathe air you don’t think.

“Kids, get back inside, before someone else falls off!” Dad says. Nepeta, Terezi, and Tavros run back inside right after he says this. Dad reaches down and grabs you by the arm, and the hoists you back up onto the dock. You’re breathing quickly, because wow, you almost drowned, but then a mermaid saved you after you saved him just yesterday!

The mermaid reaches up and grabs the necklace, but Dad grabs the mermaid by the arm and tries to pull him up as well. The mermaid starts to panic, and begins thrashing around, trying to get Dad to let go of him.  
“Dad, let go of him! He doesn’t want you to grab him!” you say  
“Equius, its a mermaid! Everyone would die to see one of these! We gotta take it to an aquarium!” Dad says, still holding onto the mermaid.  
“No! He doesn’t wanna go to an aquarium! Let him go!” you say, trying to get Dad to let go of the mermaid.  
“Equius, I’m your dad, and I say this mermaid is going to an aquarium!” Dad says as he yanks the mermaid out of the water.  
“Dad, he can’t breathe! He’ll die on the way there!” you say, you’re also starting to panic. You really don’t want this mermaid to die, what if he’s one of the only mermaids there are?  
“Then we’ll take him to a scientist!” Dad says. You really don’t want the mermaid to go to a scientist. On instinct, you grab Dad’s arm and bite it. Dad yells and lets go of the mermaid, the mermaid falling back into the ocean and swimming away. Dad tries to grab the mermaid again, but to no avail.

“But… Mermaid…” Dad says, he looks upset. He then turns to you, looking angry. “Why’d you have to go and bite my arm!? What was that for!? We could have been famous for discovering a mermaid!”  
“That mermaid would have died or been lonely and upset! He has family! I couldn’t let you take him from his family!” you reply.  
“Mermaids don’t have family, if that one’s swimming around on his own, then he must be alone!” Dad says, angry. “You’re grounded, Equius. No TV, no games, and especially no coming out here and playing with mermaids, for a week!”  
“But Dad!” you say, really upset.  
“No ‘buts’! Go to your room, now!” Dad yells.

You pout, and go back inside, and then upstairs into your room. You can hear Dad talking to Nepeta and her friends, asking them to leave since you got grounded. You’re really upset. And tomorrow is school. Bluh. Everything is poo-ey. Like a big stinky poo.

Poo.


End file.
